Trouble
by sldlovestv18
Summary: Milo gets in a major accident, causing the people in his life to reflect on their relationships with him. It's going to be a lot better then it sounds, probably, I promise. Rated because OUCH! R&R!
1. The Accident

It was a normal day in Danville High, there were students scurrying for class to class, people were stopped at their lockers to talk, the drinking fountain had exploded again and was spewing water everywhere. Nobody paid the busted fountain any attention, nor any attention to the cowlicked teenager that was grappling with the fountain to stop the flow of water. At this point in time, most people were used to the antics of Milo Murphy to not pay him much attention, unless it was something especially extravagant, like a stampede of some random animal or that time a spaceship crashed into the roof of the gym. Soon enough Milo was done stopping the water, and could finally make his way to his locker, he needed to hurry because Amanda was two lockers down from him, and she only spent two minutes at her locker in accordance with her schedule, and if he didn't get there soon he wouldn't be able to say hi to her until he saw her in Chemistry class 5th period. He just hoped that Murphy's Law didn't get in his way again before he'd get there.

Meanwhile, Amanda had just gotten to her locker, glancing over to Milo's locker as she opened her own, taking notice of his absence. She didn't know whether to be happy that her schedule wouldn't be disrupted by Murphy's Law, or disappointed that she wouldn't get her between 3rd and 4th period Milo hello that in itself had become a part of her daily school rhythm. But just as soon as she had the thought, Milo turned the corner, quickly as it seemed that he had been doing a sort of speed walk, though the moment he laid eyes on Amanda he slowed down to the most casual walk he could muster up. Amanda smiled and shook her head before putting her first and second period books away. Milo was such a dork.

"Hi, Amanda!" Milo grinned as he opened his own locker up. He mentally thanked Murphy's Law when nothing fell from his top shelf and hit him in the face, that would have been embarrassing.

"Hello, Milo." Amanda greeted, giving Milo a glance, now noticing how wet he was. "Water fountain or sink?"

"Water fountain, haven't had a sink explode on me in at least a month." Milo said, putting up some of his books before starting to rummage around for the ones he needed. "Today seems to be a light day for Murphy's Law, outside of the water fountain, I've only been chased by a dog, had my bus seat catch fire, had a baseball hit me in the chest when I got off the bus, a window broken by rogue tree branch first period, then my pencils kept breaking… so, really light."

"If you say so." Amanda said, carefully picking out her science book so that the other books didn't fall over. "I don't know how you do it."

"It's just way things are, plus it's fun, once I got the dog to stop chasing me I got to pet it. They were golden retriever/pitbull mix, she was adorable."

Meanwhile, in a sort of cruel turn of events, it turned out that Murphy's Law wasn't light today, it was just resting up for a big event.

The pair chatted a little about school for a minute, when Milo's danger sense started go off. And that's when he heard the cracking sound, soft and warning of great problems. He looked up, the roof above him and Amanda was bulging down slightly, a few cracks starting to appear and grow at an exponential rate. Building instability. Roof Collapse. By the time he realized what was happening, he only had a second left, then he looked at Amanda. He was wearing body armor, she wasn't, he had to get her out of the way before-

 **CRACK**

 _Shove_

 _ **CRASH!**_

Amanda blinked in confusion for a second as she recovered from the shock of what just happened, only to immediately holler out in pain as she realized her arm had been smashed by stray piece of debris from the ceiling, it was broken. She tried to push away the piece of metal off her arm with her good one, only to be helped by someone, she looked up, it was Zack.

"Amanda, are you okay? How is your arm? Do you know what happened?" Zack asked in rapid fire, his eyes locked onto Amanda arm, hands hovering around it, like he wanted to something but knew better then to touch it. Not getting an immediate answer from Amanda, as she was still processing everything. "It looks broken, I'd get you a sling and a splint, but the nurse is calling an ambulance, and Milo's backpack is with him under the- "

"Milo! Where is Milo? We were talking when-"Amanda started, only to shift her eyes slightly and see it. The giant whole in the roof that was letting in daylight; the pile of broken metal, dry wall, concrete, and paneling that used to be the ceiling; and underneath that pile was-

"Milo!" Amanda squeaked, lunging forward to try and get to Milo, only for Zack to hold her back.

"Amanda, be careful of your arm." He said, giving Amanda's arm another glance before looking over at the rubble himself. Melissa was right by Milo's side, trying get him to fully come to. "Do you remember what happened?"

"No, we were just talking about how we thought there might a pop quiz this week, I was distracted because I was about get to the end of locker time and I was still talking to Milo, then there was some noise, and… I don't…"

"Milo pushed you out the way as the roof collapsed. Melissa and I turned the corner when it happened, so we saw everything." Zack explained. "We still don't know what happened with the roof, though, must have just been Murphy's Law."

"Melissa, is Milo okay?" Amanda called over, after registering that she was there next to him, still internally processing that Milo had saved her. It was hard to focus with the pain in her arm.

"He hasn't woken up yet." Melissa said, looked over Milo again. Only his head, left shoulder blade and right head were poking out from the pile, his head had a fair-sized head wound that was bleeding pretty profusely, as head wounds are known to do. She had seen worse on Milo, like that Mardi Gras with oranges, that was a nasty one, but the thing she was worried about was his lack of consciousness and the blood that seemed to be leaking out from _under_ the rubble. If one of those metal bars had pierced his armor- She shook her head. "But I'm sure he'll be fine! Milo's seen some bad situations before, remember the time with the tigers in gym?" No need to make Amanda panic more, she still seemed shook up by everything. She shook Milo's shoulder again, whispering to him to wake up, anxiously eyeing the small crowd that was forming around them.

But then Milo's eyes started to flicker open, mumbling bursting forth from his mouth, brows furrowing together as he seems to process what was going on in his body.

"Milo?" Melissa said, leaning in slightly to try and see and hear him better. Milo's eyes gave a solid blink, before fully opening for the first time, then-

 _ **"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**_

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hey, so this one is going to be a little different then what I normally do. Been a long while since I've written anything, let alone something like this so forgive me for not being very good while I warm up.**

 **Also, I should be clear, this chapter might have had a focus on Amanda, and she does have a plotline in this story, but Milanda is not the focus of this story, most characters will get some focus eventually, except maybe Cavendish and Dakota, because I'm not sure how to work them in, but we will see. Thanks for reading this, I guess.**


	2. The Hospital and some other stuff

Melissa had never heard anybody scream like that before, not the least of all Milo, who she had see get grazed by an asteroid and barely flinch. Through all her years with Milo, she'd had plans for almost everything that could happen, but when Milo started to scream like that, everything fell into chaos. The small crowd of on lookers, who were also pretty familiar with Milo at this point, started to panic and try and fail to figure what to do, which only made Milo panic more, his screeching a squirming becoming more panicked and frantic. Of course, Milo's panicking only made Zack and Amanda freak out more, with Amanda trying to get to Milo to try and help, and Zack bouncing back and forth between trying to keep Amanda's arm safe and trying to get closer to Milo himself. After a few more seconds of processing the situation, Melissa snapped her focus back to Milo.

"Milo! You have to calm down, you're going worsen your injuries." Melissa said, planting one hand on his shoulder to try and keep him still and putting the other hand on top of his head as some sort of attempt to comfort him. She sees his head wound was starting to bleed faster, his heart was beating too fast or something, he needed to calm down.

"Hurts-" Milo gasped, eyes darting back and forth, before starting to cry out again, though not as loud and terrifying as the first scream.

"I know, Milo, I know, but you're bleeding." Melissa trying even harder to pin down Milo's shoulder to cease his squirming. If he was stabbed by a metal piece… "Panic doesn't do any good in a bad situation, _you_ taught me that. Retrace your steps." Milo took several quick, shallow breathes, seeming to collect himself. Melissa chose to ignore the blood leaking from his mouth.

"Melissa, what should we do? Should we be getting the stuff off of-" Mort asked, being the first of the little crowd to collect themselves.

"Not now, Mort!" Melissa said, trying to focus on the task at hand. Zack turned to Mort and the few other students that had gathered around them and told them to do to the school entrance to direct the professionals where they needed to go.

"Water fountain… locker, Amanda…" Milo seemed to skipping through his memories with some difficulty, but he was calming down so Melissa was happy. "Talked to Amanda, the roof… Amanda! Amanda was-" He tried to move again, his senses having jumped back into high alert, though it ended up being more of a spasm then anything it still caused him enough pain for him to holler out again and spit up some more blood.

"Milo!" Melissa and Zack gasped, Melissa redoubling her efforts to hold him still.

"I'm here, Milo, I'm okay." Amanda said, finally getting away from Zack and next to Milo. "Mostly, anyway." If a broken arm and a concussion was okay, which it just might be relative to this situation.

"Amanda. 'Manda." Milo's voice was starting to faded, his voice starting to fade into mumblings and stuttering that became progressively more indecipherable.

"No, no, no, Milo, stay with us." Melissa mumbled, giving his head a tap. "You need to be awake." She only got a few stutterings in response before Milo closed his eyes again. Melissa felt panic well up in her chest, before she heard the sounds of sirens approaching the school. The ambulance and firetrucks had arrived. Help was here, Milo would be okay. Probably.

… _ **Later, at the hospital…**_

"Have you heard anything from the doctor yet?" Sara asked as she finally arrived at the hospital, where the other Murphys, Zack, and Melissa were already waiting.

"Not about Milo, but it's only been two hours, the damage was pretty intense." Melissa answered, looking off towards the hallway she knew the ER was down.

"Mom said that it might take a while, especially since they had to find a safe way to remove that bar from his chest cavity." Zack said, fidgeting anxiously in his seat. "But I don't think it'll be much longer before we get an update."

"Right. And what about that girl, the girl Milo's got that big crush on, wasn't she hurt?" Sara said, taking her regular seat in the waiting room (Between Milo and her Dad she spent a lot of time in this waiting room, the seat she was sitting in even had her name scratched into the bottom of it), right next to her mom.

"Amanda had a broken arm and a mild concussion, her mom took her home thirty minutes ago. She wanted to stay, but her mom was pretty insistent that she go home and rest."

"Well, at least she's okay, Milo will be happy to hear that." She nodded, looking in the direction that she knew the ER was in. Soon enough, Zack's mother showed up, clearly trying her best to be professional.

"Mrs. Underwood, you're working on Milo?" Melissa asked, raising a brow.

"I'm only assisting because they need the extra hands, they protested because I know Milo, but they really needed the extra hands. They also thought it would be best if I came to update you on Milo's condition, since it might be easier to hear from someone you know."

"Just how bad is he?" Martin asked, looking concerned at the mention of a need for extra hands.

"Milo sustained a stab wound through his chest with a piece of metal rebar, we have successfully removed it, and he should only sustain minor damage to his lung. He also has a severe concussion, but the biggest problem is the all the crush damage he sustained. Several of his ribs, both of his legs including one of his femurs, his hips, almost every bone on his left arm, his right humerus, and several of his vertebrae are broken or at least cracked. The most worrying of which being the vertebrae and the injury to his left leg. Luckily his spinal cord remained almost miraculously unharmed, but the tibia and fibula on his left leg were shattered and he lost of circulation to his foot, we only got blood flow to the foot stable a little ago, just in time before we would have had to amputate. He's also had some internal bleeding, which lead to hemorrhaging, but he's been stable enough to work on properly the last thirty minutes. He'll probably still be in surgery another few hours, but he should survive." Everyone let out a sigh of relief at that. "He's going to be in for a long, painful recovery, even with how fast Milo heals. We likely keep him sedated most of the next week, because we don't think that he could handle consciousness, even with painkillers, given the extent of his injuries. If his concussion progresses to any sort of major swelling, he may have to be put in a medically induced coma, but that's not very likely." Dr. Underwood finished her update, the picture of professionalism, before giving the family a more soft look. "I'm really sorry this happened, but Milo is made of tough stuff, he'll be fine."

"Thank you, now you better get back to help, they might need your help." Brigette said, shooing her away.

Things were silent in the waiting room, outside of the shuffling of the few other occupants and the nurse clicking away at a keyboard at the front desk a little ways away. Nobody really knew what to say after all of that. At least Milo would make it, though they never really doubted that, Murphy's Law didn't kill anybody, or rather it hadn't several decades. This wasn't even the first time Milo had been severely injured, though it might be the most intense thing in a while. There just… wasn't anything to say.

Two hours later Dr. Underwood came in and told them the Milo's brain had begun to swell, they'd be putting him a medically induced coma.

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **So, this chapter** _ **really**_ **should have been a part of the first one, but I'm trying to keep these chapters short, because reasons. Don't worry the story is going to get better, maybe. I hope. Reviews are very appreciated. Thank you.**


	3. The Family

The whole group was allowed to go back to the ICU after they got the news. The atmosphere between the group was sad, tense, they didn't know what to do. It had been a long, long time since Milo had been hurt this badly. The last time Milo was even close to this hurt was when he was ten and he was grazed by that meteor. It was certainly the worse Zack had ever seen him hurt, but that's for the next chapter and we'll get there when we get there. They decided that the Murphy's would be the first to see him, since they couldn't all be in the room at once, so Zack and Melissa went to get lunch in hospital cafeteria while the other's went inside.

Brigette walked to the left side of the bed with Martin, and Sara went to the right side, with the two women taking hold of his hands the best they could with all the bandages and casts that were incasing his hands and arms. Large areas of Milo's body were covered in casts, and most of the area that wasn't casted was wrapped in bandages. Even though all the casts were big and bulky, Milo seemed so _small_ , weak, like he was barely there, even when his body was taking up significant room. Things were quiet, as the family let everything sink in. Sara was the one who broke the silence.

"Well, on the upside, he'll probably be in a coma for the most painful part of his recovery. Maybe that was murphy's law way of saving him from suffering after getting him in the situation to begin with." She said, giving his hand a little pat.

"That's a great way to think of it, sweetheart." Martin said, giving here a small smile. "Milo will be fine, this isn't his first coma, or roof collapse."

"I remember his first time going into a coma. Some books fell on his head when I was making some cookies, and the first thing he did when he woke up was ask me if the cookies where done." Brigette said with a sort of bitter chuckle. "He was such a sweet little munchkin at that age."

"He was."

Brigette finally took a good look at Milo's face. His face was one of the only paces that looked the least affected by the accident, with his eyes, mouth and nose, but right above his closed eyes were the bandages that concealed his head injury. She could see a purple peeking out, indicating deep bruising that he probably had. She lifted a hand to his head and ghosted her fingers over the pieces of his cowlick that had were peeking through the bandages, well it was more like his cowlick was stubbornly refusing to be contained, because of course it was. That cowlick, it reminded her of the day he was born.

 _"There he is! Oh, he's perfect, honey." Martin smiled as the cries of his son broke the air and the doctor lifted him up. "There he is, you did a great job." He leaned down and gave Brigette a peak on the lips as she tried to catch her breath._

 _"There he is, there he is." She muttered through her heavy breathing, tilting her head up to get a better look. Soon, Milo stopped crying, which set the young architect student on edge. "What's wrong? Why isn't he crying, can he breathe?"_

 _"It's okay, Mrs. Murphy, he's just curious." The doctor said as he handed the newborn over to a nurse to be cleaned and weighed. Little Milo had stopped crying and was looking around. Martin went around the bed and over to the nurse to get a better look at what was going on. "_

 _"Seven pounds, four ounces. Pretty big for a baby born this early. He's a big boy, what are you naming him, again?" The nurse turned to Martin as she started to dry Milo off._

 _"Milo. His name is Milo." Martin said, smiling at Milo, who stared back at him. He didn't have any facial control yet, but Martin could tell Milo was happy._

 _"What a great name." She said as she started to diaper the boy and put on his little hospital hat. She handed him over his father, who carried him over to the newborns mother._

 _"He looks so perfect, look at his little cheeks." Brigette smiled, reaching out for him, as he was readily placed in his arms. Milo stared up at her, his mouth opened up slightly, eyes scanning her. "He's such a little chubster, look at him." She said, rubbing a finger over his little cheeks before reaching and pulling his hat back, only for several thin pieces of hair to stand right on up in a distinct little cowlick. "Oh, there it is."_

 _"There it is, the cowlick! He's officially a Murphy." Martin grinned, only from Milo to open his mouth and-_

 _ **Hic!**_

 _"And he has the hiccups." Brigette smiled, giving Milo a little forehead kiss, only for him to hiccup again. And again._

Just as soon as she started to realize that she smiling at the memory, she also realized that she had started to cry.

"My baby…" She whispered to herself, more tears starting to cascade down. Martin wrapped an arm around her, holding her close.

"It's okay, Brigette, he'll be okay." He whispered as Sara reached across the bed a grabbed her shoulder.

"Yeah, he'll be fine, he's Milo, Milo is made of steel, and nails, and… other hard to break stuff. He'll be okay no matter what." Sara said, though she didn't sound nearly as confidant in her words as her father did. The whole family leaned into a sort of group hug over the bed, pressing their foreheads together.

"Everything's going to be fine." Martin whispered, before repeating himself a few more times to himself.

"When he wakes up… I going to make him some cookies, with chocolate chips, and peanut butter M&Ms." The mother sniffled, tightening the grip she had gotten on her husband.

"That sounds like a great idea, I'm sure he'll love it."

They stayed like that for a while longer, not talking.

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Yeah, this was a sort of nothing chapter, sorry about that. I hope I don't fumble this story too hard, I haven't done anything like it in a while. I hope it gets better from here. Zack's chapter is going to be something.**


	4. Zack's Chapter

Melissa and Zack walked through the doorway of Milo's hospital room, having just been warned by the Murphy's that he looked rough. Even with that warning, they weren't really prepared for what they saw; Milo, completely devoid of his normal spirit and any bright color, completely shattered, almost literally. White casts, white bandages, tubes and wires, and pale blue-ish gown, a far cry from the brightly color sweater vests and nearly unending energy. It was very un-Milo, and just very unnatural in general, sad. And so, Zack was sort of baffled when Melissa just walked right up to Milo and gripped his good hand, well before Zack had even had the chance to properly process the whole thing, but then again, should he really be surprised? Melissa had known Milo since he was small, and not really great at avoiding perilous situations, but he had met Milo when they were in their teens, or pretty much teens, and by then Milo had gotten pretty good at predicting murphy's law ahead of time and avoiding it.

Make no mistake, Zack had seen Milo get dinged up, plenty of scratches, concussions, broken bones, and even some burns from small contained fires, but never really anything this extreme. The worse he had ever seen Milo was that time when was when the jinx got his driver's license and ended up crashing his car into a ditch two weeks later. **(AN: The kids are 16-17 in this story, sorry I didn't make that clear at first)** Even then, Milo was happy and smiling in the Murphy Suite when they came to visit afterward. He had never really seen Milo get severely injured before, so this was a sort of harsh wake up call. Milo could get hurt. It was easy to forget that, given the amount of times Zack had seen Milo practically, and one time literally but that's a story for a different time, tap-dance around danger, with superhuman optimism. He once saw Milo's foot get crushed by a small boulder, only for him to keep smiling. If Milo weren't such an unrelenting dork all the time, Zack would sometimes think he was actually superhuman, so normally it was a nice little reminder of Milo's capacity for human folly when he got dinged up. But this, this was something else altogether, this was terrible, Milo might not fully come back from-

"Hey, aren't you going to come over here and see Milo?" Melissa asked, break Zack out of his thoughts and prompting some embarrassment when he realized that he probably been standing there like a moron for five minutes. Not cool.

"Yeah." Zack nodded, walking over and taking a place standing next her. Things didn't get better looking at Milo up close. It was like it wasn't even Milo laying there, but an empty shell that just looked like Milo. It didn't _feel_ right.

"It's been a really long time since Milo was anywhere near this hurt." Melissa said, glancing over at Zack again. "His first time being a coma since you two met, right?"

"Right… he's been this hurt before? He's been a coma before?" Zack prodded, hoping he wouldn't somehow upset Melissa with the questions.

"Not this bad, but close." Melissa nodded, giving Milo's hand a squeeze. "He's been in four comas total. The last one was when we were eleven. We were running from a wave of crazed lemmings that was crashing down the hallway, because there was an accident at the lemming awareness fair the school was hosting, and then Milo slipped on an orange peel and smacked his head on a water fountain. We ended getting ran over by the lemming wave when Milo fell, and I stopped to help him. There were… so many." Melissa stared into space for several seconds, reliving the memory, before blinking a few times and shaking her head. "He was in a coma for a day and a half."

"Just from smacking his head against the fountain?" Zack gapped, his tone disbelieving.

"Yeah, brains are weird, man. I've seen Milo get smacked in the head plenty of times and him be just fine, but that time, coma. I think it might have been the weird angle he smacked it at, he hit the thinnest part of skull against the corner, he had a hairline fracture and everything. Murphy's law can be weird like that sometimes, you'll learn that eventually."

"I would have thought I knew it all by now." Zack frowned, thinking back on all that he'd been through because of murphy's law while he was hanging out with Milo. The Woodpecker Accident, the Water Buffalo Situation, the Ant Hill Catastrophe of 2019…

"You're close enough to knowing it all, give it another two years." Melissa said, a thumb rubbing back and forth over the underside of Milo's hand.

"If he makes it through this-"

 _*flick*_

"Ow!" Zack whined, rubbing the spot on his head where Melissa had just flicked him, though he halted any further complaining he might do when he saw the glare Melissa was leveling him with. She was _pissed._

"Don't say that sort of thing! Milo is going to be fine." She huffed, before turning back to look at Milo.

"Why not? His injuries are extensive! He was in touch-and-go surgery for hours trying to repair all his crush injuries, it just seems that there is a chance-"

"Well you're wrong! I thought you would have more faith in Milo by now that he would be okay. He always ends up okay, this time won't be any different."

"You and the Murphys keep saying that, that he'll be fine, but-"

"No buts, he'll be fine."

"How do you know that?" He asked, and Melissa turned back to glare at him again.

"Because he's _Milo_. He'll be okay, because he's always okay. Murphy's law is not a deadly affliction." Melissa let out a puff of air through her nose and turned back to Milo. Zack didn't want to say anything to that. He knew logically that she was right, Milo was always fine and nobody had died of a murphy's law accident in forever; but in the pit of his stomach he couldn't shake the thought that something might still go wrong. Maybe it was just his naturally nervous personality, maybe his instincts were trying to tell him something his brain didn't want to believe. Either way, he decided to change the subject.

"This hospital room seems so un-Milo, don't you think? It's so boring. If Milo isn't going to fill this room with life, maybe we should do something about it." Zack suggested, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, you're right. We should get some markers and decorate his casts, get the others to sign them, decorate the room with stuff he likes, so he'll be happy when he wakes up. That's a great idea." Melissa smiled. "Milo will love it. He might be a little embarrassed at the effort, but he'll love it."

"It's a plan then."

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Another really short chapter. Yikes. I hope this isn't some sort of omen. But I suppose my motivation took a small hit after the lack of feedback on the last chapter, which expected and over now, but still, ick. Speaking of which, I finding asking questions helps with engagement and feedback, so… do y'all have a favorite part or thing about this story yet XD**


	5. A Bradley Chapter, I Guess?

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Just a little thing before we start, for the purposes of this fic, Bradley doesn't have a vine hand, mostly because it wouldn't serve any purpose to this story other to be a distraction and I frankly don't know what to do with all that. Also, Bradley chapter no one wanted or asked for, yay? XD**

Major murphy's law accidents where Milo got hurt rarely happened anymore, the last one Bradley would think of was freshman year, and even then Milo still got away with only two broken ankles and a pretty serious concussion. If Bradley remembered right, it'd been years since Milo had been hurt _this_ badly. He had almost forgot how _annoying_ it was. Ever since Milo and Amanda had gotten carted away, with Melissa and Zack following them to the hospital, it was all most people in their class could talk about. It hadn't helped that Melissa, Zack, and Amanda never returned to school after the accident, so nobody had any answers until Melissa sent out a mass text about Milo's condition at like five in the afternoon. Bradley had hoped that that would be the end of it, but once everybody knew how bad things were, that was all people were talking about. Even when Milo wasn't around, he was stealing away all the attention, though he couldn't feel too embittered towards Milo this time around. As much as he wasn't a fan of Milo, he had to admit even he feels bad for the jinx. He didn't want him dead, just quiet and out of his spotlight, plus the giant hole in the second floor ceiling was a bother.

"Hey, Melissa, are there anymore updates on Milo?" He heard Lydia ask, prompting him to look up and see that Zack and Melissa had arrived at homeroom, finally.

"No, we won't know anything more until we go visit after school." Melissa said, before starting to rifle through her backpack. "Speaking of which, Zack and I are going to decorate Milo's hospital room, to make it a little friendly, more Milo-like, and we want to know who would like to come and help." There was immediately a small flurry of students offering to come over, namely Mort, Chad, Lydia, and a few girls Bradley knew the be cheerleaders, but who's names he couldn't remember. Some of the cheerleaders had taken a liking Milo over the years, something about pep or whatever.

"Hey, Bradley, what about you?" Zack looked over to him, raising a brow. Ugh, why'd he even ask? Granted, this would be a something that he could use to earn brownie points with his classmates, especially Melissa…

"Sure, no problem."

"Great!" Melissa said, scribbling his name down on a little notebook.

 _Later that day…_

Bradley was showing up a little late to Melissa's little decorating party, but he had a good reason, he needed to get some art supplies and go Milo a get well soon card from the hospital gift shop. When he arrived, Mort was already there, moving around the little bit of furniture that was in the room, muttering something about feng shui and chakras, while Chad was trying to untangle himself from the streamers. Wait, streamers? Where they decorating his room or throwing a party? Melissa and Lydia seemed to be rapping patterned tap around things. He couldn't tell what on earth Zack was doing.

"I'm here!" He announced, catching Melissa's attention.

"Great, did you bring anything?" She asked, sitting down her roll of tap as carefully as she could.

"A get well card, some construction paper, some scissors."

"Right… do you know how to make paper snowflakes? You can make some for us to hang from the ceiling." Melissa said, looking around for a place where he would do such a thing.

"Snowflakes? Is all this decorating going to have a theme at all?"

"Nah, we figure that Milo would care more about the vibe of the room than a theme." That was a fair point. "Just be careful with those scissors, Milo may be in coma, but murphy's law isn't." Everyone gave a cursory glance to Chad.

"Noted." Bradley said, going over to a corner to start his work, but not before taking his first good look at Milo.

Now, Bradley might not have been a really big fan of Milo, or most people for that matter, but of all the people he had a distaste for Milo probably topped the list; but the way Milo looked stopped him in his tracks. He'd never seen a person look so… empty, let alone Milo, who was full of life to a degree he normally found annoying. It was chilling. When he had been told what condition Milo was in over text, it hadn't really sunk in what it meant, or what it looked like. He could see why Melissa and Zack wanted to do this, Milo looked wrong. It seemed wrong that Milo that someone like Milo was in a place like this. Milo might be something of a pest, but this was way past anything he'd ever wish on Milo.

"Don't worry, Bradley, Milo will be okay. I know it looks bad, with all the tubes and stuff, but it's not that bad. The only reason he's even on the ventilator is all the crush damage there is to his lungs, they're going to try and ween him off it a few days." Melissa said, breaking him from his chain of thought.

"What? I wasn't- I don't-… whatever."

He sat in the corner and made snowflakes for awhile, eventually the cheerleader girls and Lydia showed up and started to play some music, very quietly because ICU, but it still kicked things up a notch from the sort of dreary mood of before. Amanda showed up at one point, but she disappeared quickly, seemingly wanting to wait so she could see Milo alone. Bradley felt bad for Amanda, not only had Milo's little crush on her resulted in her being injured, but she really seemed to feel guilty about Milo's little sacrifice. He hoped she felt better about it soon, of all his classmate she was one of the least agitating. Soon enough they had finished what they could for the day. Multicolored snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, streamers hang around the bed, balloons of different colors, some flowers, a table with get well soon cards, colorful tape covering large amounts of Milo's bed rails. It wasn't perfect, it still seemed like there was… something missing, but the place seemed much more lively now, Milo would be happy. Bradley assumed that in the coming days his parents would blankets from home, photos, things like that, then the room would feel complete. Everybody filed out of the room, with Amanda slipping just as everybody else left.


	6. Mort? Amanda?

Mort gathered everything he needed to go the hospital to visit Milo again. He had gone through some measures to make the flow of the energy in the hospital room more conductive to healing, but what the room really needed was some crystals. He was going to bring some rose quartz, amethyst, some carnelian because Milo could just use some in general, he was even bringing an abalone shell necklace for Milo to wear for protection. He might bring a few extra crystals but those were the main ones he wanted to bring. While he was looking for some amethyst, his hand drifted to the abalone shell necklace he was wearing. He had read somewhere that abalone shell was good to wear when you're in need of guidance in a relationship, something he had been in need of since Milo's accident.

It seemed like he should be closer to Milo by now. He'd known Milo since elementary school, he had been in a band with Milo for three years. It stood to reason that he should know him better by now, but when everything had happened he didn't even feel the need to visit until Melissa and Zack had brought it up; and that didn't sit right with him. He definitely should have been more concerned, right? The only people he spends more time with than Milo was Chad, and he knew if Chad was hurt, he'd definitely visit as soon as possible. It wasn't even that he didn't know why, he did. Mort the held Milo at arm's length because of Murphy's Law, but was that really fair? Milo couldn't help that, and he always had a way to protect others. Milo seemed like a nice guy, had he been being distant to him because of something he couldn't help? That definitely wasn't right.

His mother drove him to the hospital, with a promise to pick him up in an hour when she was done grocery shopping. Mort walked up to Milo's room in the ICU, clearly labeled as containing a Murphy, but before he walked in, he saw through the window to see that Amanda was in there. Yikes.

Everybody had been a little concerned for Amanda the last two days. The day after the accident, she didn't show up to school until third period because of her concussion, and when she was there, she was more spacey. People were already concerned then, but today she spaced out when looking at her planner, before screaming in frustration and chucking it out the window only to freak out and run after it. Amanda was clearly having a tough time. Mort had seen Melissa and Lydia talk to her at lunch, but he didn't think Amanda actually said much.

"Hey, have you been here since school ended? I didn't think you had time in your schedule for that." Mort said, entering the room, hoping that starting on a something of a joke would make things less awkward.

"My mother insisted a drop some of my afterschool activities until my concussion fades and I get better at getting around with my arm cast, so I was able to free up some time to visit Milo. The least I could do is visit him, though I still brought him something." Amanda cast her gaze to Milo's side table, where she had sat her gift, a tiny teddy bear wearing a fireman's helmet.

"Fireman Bear, huh? That's cool."

"Milo really likes firemen. Melissa told me he has a framed picture of some of Danville fire department hanging in his room." Milo liked firemen? How had he not noticed that?

"Right, well, I'm just dropping of some crystals, I'll be out of your hair soon." Mort said, opening his bag and starting to unpack his gemstones.

"You brought some of your crystals here for Milo? That's sweet?" Amanda gave a small smile. "I'm sure Milo would really appreciate it."

"Well, I don't think Milo really believes in the properties of crystals, but he always goes with it whenever I brought it up; he's just cool that way." Mort said, positioning a piece of amethyst. "I just want to help however I can, you know?"

"I wish there was something I could do." Anything close to a good mood Amanda had seemed to slip away like sand through fingers, or a greased pig on a slip n' slide.

"I'm sure Milo will just be happy that you're he here, you know how big of a crush he has on you." It didn't take a rocket scientist to see how Milo felt about Amanda. It was the school's most open secret. Milo was not good at concealing it. Heck, Mort could have sworn he'd seen Amanda flirt back occasionally. Apparently, this wasn't what Amanda needed to hear, because just as soon as he said it, tears starts welling up in her eyes. "Woah, what's wrong?"

"N-nothing, I'm sorry, I've just been thinking about… and I just- it's so- and I…" Amanda shook her head. "Did you know that since Milo still has brain function he still has some reflexes? If you squeeze his hand right, he gives a little reflex squeeze back." Changing the subject.

"Amanda, you know that still isn't your fault, right? Milo would has done the same thing for almost anybody." Mort said, placing down the last of his rose quartz.

"Yeah, but he didn't do it for just anybody, he did it for me." She shook her head, looking down at her hands. She was holding back, and the way she was carrying herself was definitely no good for her chakras.

"You know, holding stuff in like that will give you blockage in your chakra that will take forever to clear." Mort went and stood by Amanda.

"Do you think I've been unfair to Milo?"

"Unfair?"

"That I… haven't given him the chance I should have. I mean, Milo would do anything for me. He's cute, nice, and I get so… jealous when I see other girls looking at him. But, I haven't given him a chance, because of a schedule? Is a schedule more important than my relationships? Than people? What- what if Milo if supposed to be the love of life, or something crazy like that, and I could have been getting to know him better this whole time!" Amanda put her face in her hands. "Instead of just asking him to a movie or something, I've been playing with him. Little kisses on the cheek, maybe some flirting the past year. That's not fair to him, and for what? A schedule that frequently doesn't work even if Milo isn't around because it's so tight."

"Well, I think what's important that you're being fair to yourself."

"Have I even been that? Don't I deserve a nice boyfriend, who thinks the world of me, and finds all my little eccentricities cute? Most girls wish that had a boy as into them as Milo's into me, but I've been denying us both."

Mort looked at her for a second, taking that all in. He takes off his abalone shell necklace and offers it to her.

"Here, you need this more than I do. I was wearing it because I needed some guidance in my relationship with Milo, but you need it more." She takes it and puts it on her neck, and while she is looking at it Mort goes ahead and gives Milo an abalone shell as well.

"You've been thinking about your relationship with Milo to?" She gazed over at him, rubbing a thumb over the shell.

"Yeah, I've been holding him at arm's length too, though not in the way you have, in a more… platonic way."

"Mort, Milo thinks very highly of you, you're one of his bandmates." Amanda tried offering up that small comfort, but it seemed empty.

"Milo likes most people, though. I've spent tons of time around Milo, but I feel like I don't know anything about him. I've maybe not been the best friend."

"You know Milo doesn't hold it against you for keeping your distance, he understands that most people would rather avoid murphy's law."

"Maybe you should listen to your own words of wisdom."

The two fell silent.

"You look hungry, I saw you didn't eat lunch today." Mort said, going over to close his bag up.

"I am a little hungry." Amanda agreed, nodding her head.

"Well then, come on, burgers are on me." The least he could do was make sure Amanda was okay. Milo would want that, right? Amanda nodded, heading towards the door.

He hoped he got back to hospital before his mom did.

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **I probably should have just started where the last chapter ended for flow sakes, but… that didn't happen. Also, Mort Chapter… yay? Another thing nobody really asked for XD Love the reviews, duckies!**


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